Ryukyu–San-en has a small game inside the game: the first few possessions after each restart. Ryukyu’s staff said a poor opening against Nagasaki was never fully repaired, while San-en’s coach called out weak execution at the start of the second half in Kobe. Ryukyu then had a close away game in Asian competition, adding another demand on their rotation. I’m interested in whether San-en can finish defensive possessions with a rebound before either side gets to play at its preferred pace.
San-en’s Kobe report has Takanari Sasaki describing a stretch in which lost rebounds helped Kobe erase a lead; Ikkyu Tsuya also identified defense and rebounding as the work for the Ryukyu matchup. Ryukyu’s Asian game was not one-way either: Taoyuan briefly took the lead in the third quarter before Ryukyu recovered. A poor spell can be answered, but it costs extra work. For those following this matchup, what shows you a team has reset: its rebounding position, or the quality of its first pass after a stop?
